


Takes one to know one

by Nea



Category: Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash, needs knowledge of episode 301
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-16
Updated: 2016-11-16
Packaged: 2018-08-31 10:57:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8575657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nea/pseuds/Nea
Summary: It's a follow-up to Some things never change





	

**Author's Note:**

> **Author's note:** I thank [gayclaryfray](http://archiveofourown.org/users/gayclaryfray) for her beta work and Diane for her suggestions.  
>  **Author's note 2:** For ‘s prompt: _Coming out_ and a sequel to [Some things never change](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8196680)

Jay slowly opens his eyes and blinks sleepily at Mouse, who gently shakes his shoulder.

"You okay?" Mouse wants to know, and Jay nods.

"I’m good."

"Good." Mouse sounds pleased. "Go back to sleep, then."

Jay closes his eyes again, but instead of falling asleep, he realizes that he has to go to the bathroom.

"Buddy?" Mouse instantly looks up from the computer, when Jay passes him.

"I’m still good," Jay tells him.

"You gonna throw up?" Mouse looks worried and Jay shakes his head, before closing the bathroom door behind himself.

"I’ll call nine-one-one if you are!" He hears Mouse’s voice and snorts.

"Don’t!"

When he comes back, Mouse hands him a glass of water.

"Take these." He puts two of the pills prescribed by Will onto Jay’s palm.

"Aren’t you tired of babysitting me?" Jay asks right before swallowing the pain-killers.

"Now I finally have time to catch all the bugs in the digitized files." Mouse gets back behind his laptop.

"I hate to bring it to you, buddy, but I think it’s going to be too much for Voight and Al to handle." Jay squeezes his shoulder, on his way to bed.

"I’ll try anyway." Mouse sighs, because he knows.

The pain meds haven’t kicked in yet, so falling asleep again is not possible for Jay. His cracked ribs won’t let him toss and turn, so after a while he decides to switch on the TV.

Zapping through the channels, he finally stops at _Dogs of war_ , a TV show about veterans who get dogs to help them deal with PTSD.

"Can’t sleep?" Jay suddenly hears Mouse’s voice, who is leaning against the door frame. He sounds tired. 

"Need a break?" Jay wants to know, because he wouldn’t mind some company.

Mouse yawns in response, and moves over to sit down on the bed.

"Do you think we could talk Voight into getting a K-9 unit for the Intelligence?" he asks, kicking his legs up and stretching out next to Jay.

"I’d love to see you try." Jay grins at Mouse, shaking his head.

"Lindsey could try." Mouse muses. "She has the best chance to getting through with it."

"Yeah, maybe." Jay laughs.

They focus on the TV again. The young marine on screen is saying that he had to sign an affirming that he wouldn’t have any relationships with men while in the army, just because he was out when he enlisted.

"I’m just glad no one knew I was bi back in the days when I got in," Jay says angrily. "Fuck ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’! Can you imagine having to sign something like that?"

"I never really got DADT in the first place, because how ..." Mouse starts, then blinks, surprised. "Wait – you’re bi?"

"Yeah..." Jay shrugs, suddenly feeling nervous, because Mouse doesn’t look at him. Not that he thinks Mouse would have a problem with it.

It certainly also isn’t because Jay feels uncomfortable coming out to an old friend. Though it might be an issue for Mouse that Jay didn’t tell him right after DADT’s repeal, or when they came back from Afghanistan. But it never came up and Jay didn’t want to make a big announcement of it.

"Does that change anything?" he wants to know.

"No." Mouse’s eyes are still fixed on the screen.

Jay watches Mouse from the corner of his eyes and sees Mouse bite his lip. 

He suppresses a sigh. Was he really that wrong about Mouse?

"I had no idea," Mouse finally says, rubbing his face.

"That was kinda the point." Jay smirks, because Mouse sounds surprised and not shocked. Or maybe the pills are finally doing their job.

"That’s not it," Mouse continues, finally looking at him. "’Takes one to know one’ totally didn’t work for us!"

"It worked with Will," Jay says, before Mouse’s words settle in. "Are you...?"

"Also bi," Mouse supplements, and they both laugh, the TV show long forgotten.

"How comes we didn’t notice?" Jay asks, but doesn’t expect an answer.

At war you have to pay attention to stay alive, not check out the guy sitting next to you in the humvee.

"Everything’s so homoerotic and homophobic at the same time, it fucks with your perception, I guess," Mouse says and Jay nods. Then Mouse asks: "Does anyone from work know?"

"Just Lindsay. During an observation in the middle of the night she asked me if I ever had something with a guy and I said yes," Jay remembers. "She’s my partner, after all, so no secrets."

"Is that why it didn’t work with you two?" Mouse wants to know.

Jay shakes his head. "We figured out that we’re better friends than a couple."

What he doesn’t say is that Erin asked him about Mouse. He denied having any feelings, of course, because Mouse is an old friend... Besides, you just don’t develop a... thing for a member of your former unit. No matter how blue his eyes are or how you love to make him smile, or even laugh. 

Especially since there were times when Jay didn’t hear Mouse laughing at all. Mouse started to sound broken, when they came back. Like he was slowly falling apart. It was very painful for Jay to watch and it wasn’t the right time to think about his own feelings. Or to let Mouse know about whatever there was inside Jay, just for him.

Now, too much time has passed to do anything about it. And though his... thing for Mouse didn’t disappear, Jay couldn’t be happier about their friendship and would never risk it. He can blindly trust Mouse with his life and he knows that it’s mutual. The fact they’re both bisexual doesn’t have to mean anything.

"Good." Mouse nods. "Or, you know... not ‘good’ like ‘good, because I don’t like her’, more like ‘it’s good to have friends.’ You know what I mean, don’t you?"

Jay just grins. He likes when Mouse starts babbling. Or maybe it’s the pain killers.

"So, Will’s also bi?" Mouse changes the subject quickly, and Jay winces. He accidentally outed his little brother.

"Yeah." He hopes he can blame it on the concussion and the meds. "I think he wants to be like me." Jay bumps his shoulder against Mouse’s. "But don’t tell him I said that..."

The last part’s a little slurred and he isn’t sure Mouse gets it. Jay doesn’t ask him, because his eye-lids become heavier and heavier and he falls asleep.

It’s the alarm of Mouse’s phone that makes Jay open his eyes again. The room is dark, except for the blueish flicker of the TV. Mouse is sound asleep, still next to him and stirs a little at the sound. His hair’s a mess and Jay has to fight the sudden urge to brush it off Mouse’s face.

"Gotta check on you," Mouse mumbles eventually, without opening his eyes. "You good?"

"I’d be better if you’d turn if off." Jay smirks, watching Mouse feeling around for the phone. It slides off the bed and hitting the floor is what finally silences it.

Then Jay scoots a bit closer to Mouse to get the remote and switches off the TV before closing his eyes again.


End file.
